rectangular area of 72,000 ha along the tidal reach of the Batanghari River, northeast of Jambi, Sumatra, has been proposed by the Indonesian government as one of the sites for developing a community to relieve the population pressure in other parts of Indonesia (see figure l). By year 2000, Hanson and Koesoebiono (1975) estimated that a population of perhaps 250 million people would requir…